Day 1: 1.5 hours of Spanish abuse

So once again, I abuse my brain speaking more and more Spanish. I've been doing some work in my challenge in the last week as sort of a build up for this week. I've been forging ahead on Duolingo, which I find is a great way to learn vocabulary, and a great way for grammar (though I do wish it explained some of the rules a bit better).

In the last week, I've found a few language partners, and have continued to forge ahead in my Spanish studies, to the point that I can generally hold brief, focused conversations. My biggest limiation at this point is vocabulary, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to build up. Already though, my Spanish is showing resultings, as I can generally go to a store, understand how much I need to pay for something, and properly pay it, as well as have relatively few issues when I eat lunch in a comador, or one of the places in downtown Santo Domingo.

Take Two, Day -1: Cleaning the slate ...

So, for those who have been following along, this is my second attempt at a challenge, in which I said I'd both praise and run Windows 8. Well, I'm following through, here's the YouTube video with the praise, and acting as a down-payment.


If you say you're going to do something, you sure as hell should follow through. As soon as I can realistically do so, I'll post a follow up with my laptop running Windows 8 (or 8.1 if its been released by then).

Anyway, as we're in our last day before I ramp into language learning, I met another tutor on italki, and had an almost non-stop conversation in Spanish for 30 minutes; I did have to look up words, and I made mistakes, but there was no doubt that I was actually speaking Spanish. We discussed my challenge, and my teacher was supportive in saying he'd help me through it, though he's only available on weekends; that's fine though as weekends are the best day IMHO to study :-).

He also said that at least based on my conversational skills I'm a solid A1, which is pretty good considering a week ago, I would have struggled to put any sentences together. Furthermore, that night, I went out to the little deli on the corner, and managed to order a tuna and cheese sandwich, and a coke completely in Spanish, ask how much it cost, and then said good bye with no difficulty.

Yay for ones small victories :-)

Take Two, Day -2: Joining the +1 Language Project ...

First off, I'd like to announce that I'm joining the +1 language challenge, here's my YouTube video ...

Now some may wonder what happened to my previous attempts. The answer is I hid them; I didn't want to look back and constantly remember that I failed time and time again

But Michael, that's just a cop-out ...

No, its not! I was a smoker for many years before quitting in January of this year, even though I failed time and time again, I never gave up. Just like quitting smoking, sometimes you just need to step up to the plate and try, try again. Some may disagree with me, but I'm still standing here, saying I'm still trying, and still learning.

Anyway, since my previous attempt, I removed myself from Oregon, and after a brief period back home in New York, set off again, finding myself in Santo Domingo, and I realized that if I'm going to do this, then I need to be serious about it, and be in a place where there will be few distractions. So I found an apartment, agreed to a one month lease, and setup camp.

I've been here now for a few days, met a few people, and simply worked towards meet partners to talk in Spanish both in real life and in Skype, and reaching out through couchsurfing, italki, and the Language Mixer. I've also located a few language tutors to help me keep track. I'm determined to succeed, and with the change in environment, I'm certain I'm going to see this through ...